Like all teams, the Seahawks are trying to understand exactly what the NFL is looking for in its increased emphasis on penalizing dangerous hits. In a game based on collisions, it’s a difficult tightrope to walk at times.

“That’s just a thin line,” second-year linebacker Aaron Curry said Thursday. “We saw a video of what is and is not legal, but some of the hits are just routine plays in the NFL and it just depends on whether that guy gets knocked out or hurt or not.

“Some of the stuff, you just don’t know what to do or how to respond to some things that go on on the field. I’m a defensive player so I have a biased answer, but it’s just a thin line.”

Seahawks linebacker Aaron Curry tackles Tampa Bay running back Derrick Ward last season in a typical play where helmet contact is difficult to avoid. (Otto Greule Jr./Getty Images)

Curry said he won’t think about the situation once he’s on the field other than knowing the main issue is avoiding helmet-to-helmet hits.

“A lot of our concern is if a runner ducks his head to get the extra yard and we hit him in the head and knock him out, where do we go from there?” Curry said. “But no defender is going to think about it on game day.”

Defensive end Chris Clemons, a seven-year NFL veteran, said nothing has changed except the increased focus of blows to the head.

“It’s always been a rule,” he said. “They’ve always talked about it, but it was just enforced because of the hits that were taken this weekend. They saw some things that can actually get a few guys hurt. So I don’t look at it as the NFL is changing.”

Chris Clemons

Like Curry, Clemons said he’ll just continue playing his game and worry about the repercussions as they come.

“I’m not one of those guys who really thinks about what the fine is,” Clemons said. “At the end of the day, I’m just really trying to help my team win. If there’s a fine, there’s a fine. It’s something I have to learn from.

“I don’t go into a game thinking I can’t stick my head in there because I don’t want to get a fine. If I’m going to help my team, that’s my thing. It’s not worrying about how much money I’m losing or how much money I’m making because of a hit.”

Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said the team always coaches to tackle correctly for their own players’ sake.

Gus Bradley

“We preach it all the time to our guys about safety,’ Bradley said. “We tackle every week and we’re talking about it. They trust us. That’s our No. 1 objective is the safety of our guys. We just teach them good tackling fundamentals.

“It’s unfortunate. I saw some of those hits and, sheesh, I know it’s creating quite a discussion. But we just try to teach our base principals and are always talking about safety with our guys.”

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said the issue is naturally divided somewhat by party lines between the two sides of the ball.

Matt Hasselbeck

“We talked about it today. We watched the video that the league sent,” Hasselbeck said. “There was a lot of comments and observations from the defensive guys and the offensive guys were mostly quiet. That’s just how it is.

“It’s a tricky thing. From my perspective I’m trying to protect the guys that I’m throwing the ball to. I’m trying to put them in a situation where they’re not going to get hit like that.”

In the end, players will be left to make split-second decisions on how exactly to hit an opposing player, knowing that play can then be reviewed over and over in an attempt to determine whether it was legal or not.

That’s the part defenders like Curry struggle with as they balance the need to play with tremendous emotion and force, yet to be controlled enough to avoid the wrong kind of collisions in a high-speed game.

“The toughest thing is the technology we have,” said Curry. “Because if you just play the game and see a hit, it just looks routine. But when you put it in extra slo-motion and can see the sweat coming off and the mouth piece come out and the chin strap fall off and the guy’s eyes roll back in his head, it just looks worse than what it really is.

“A lot of hits in the league are violent and devastating. But you can’t stop somebody from hitting hard,” Curry said. “It’s just a thin line of what do you do when the player with the ball or the so-called defenseless player, they decrease the surface area we’re allowed to hit (by lowering their head). If all you can see is the face mask and helmet, do you still hit him there or do you give up the big play?